This is a suggested teaching schedule for a 10 day class study of Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine. Lesson plans and handouts can be downloaded individually by clicking on the name of the file in the schedule below. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view these files.
The CD Audio Guides are available only for the communities participating in The Big Read. If your community is participating, contact the lead community organization to receive a free Audio Guide. If your community is not participating, encourage a local organization (such as a library, museum, literary center, arts council, or similar non-profit organization) to apply.
Day One
FOCUS: Biography
Day One Lesson Plan [PDF]
Activities: Listen to The Big Read Audio Guide. Discuss the Reader’s Guide essays “Introduction to the Novel” (p. 3), “Louise Erdrich (b. 1954)” (pp. 5–7), and “An Interview with Louise Erdrich” (pp. 10–11). Write an essay based on a story from childhood.
Homework: Read “The World’s Greatest Fisherman” (pp. 1–42).* Have students keep a reader’s journal, and write an entry considering how their view of June Kashpaw changes during Chapter 1.
Day Two
FOCUS: Culture and History
Day Two Lesson Plan [PDF]
Activities: Read the Reader’s Guide essay “The History of the Chippewa” (pp. 8–9) and Handout One and Handout Two from the Teacher’s Guide. Write a brief essay about Albertine Johnson.
Homework: Read “Saint Marie,” “Wild Geese,” and “The Island” (pp. 43–83). Have students record a paragraph about each chapter’s narrator in their reader’s journals.
Day Three
FOCUS: Narrative and Point of View
Day Three Lesson Plan [PDF]
Activities: Discuss differences in how the various narrators in the first four chapters express themselves. Rewrite part of Chapter 1 from a different point of view.
Homework: Read “The Beads” and “Lulu’s Boys” (pp. 84–117) and Teacher’s Guide Handout Three. Students should make a list of the characters, classifying them as “major” or “minor.”
Day Four
FOCUS: Characters
Day Four Lesson Plan [PDF]
Activities: Identify pairings of characters. Students should write about a particular pair: their similarities and differences, and where the reader’s sympathies might lie.
Homework: Read “The Plunge of the Brave” and “Flesh and Blood” (pp. 118–162). Ask students to identify three or four instances of rich, evocative language.
Day Five
FOCUS: Figurative Language
Day Five Lesson Plan [PDF]
Activities: Discuss examples of metaphor in the chapters read so far. Students should each create a story using extended metaphor.
Homework: Read “A Bridge” and “The Red Convertible” (pp. 163–189). Students should find two or three main symbols from the novel for the next class discussion.
Day Six
FOCUS: Symbols
Day Six Lesson Plan [PDF]
Activities: Discuss how food is used as a symbol in the novel. Ask students to write an essay about another important symbol in the novel, such as water, fire, or fish.
Homework: Read “Scales” and “Crown of Thorns” (pp. 190–225). Have students write an essay on the ways Gordie Kashpaw changes in Chapter 12.
Day Seven
FOCUS: Character Development
Day Seven Lesson Plan [PDF]
Activities: Discuss how a reader’s understanding of particular characters grows and/or changes over the course of the chapters read so far. Students should write about the character they find most or least sympathetic.
Homework: Read “Love Medicine” and “Resurrection” (pp. 226–271). Ask students to identify the most important plot points from these chapters and the narrator of each chapter in their journal.
Day Eight
FOCUS: The Plot Unfolds
Day Eight Lesson Plan [PDF]
Activities: Create a timeline of the most important events of the book thus far. Students should rewrite one of these major plot points with a different outcome.
Homework: Read “The Good Years” and “Crossing the Water” (pp. 272–333). Ask students to identify three themes of the novel and the narrator of each chapter in their journals.
Day Nine
FOCUS: Themes of the Novel
Day Nine Lesson Plan [PDF]
Activities: Discuss the novel’s themes of abandonment, tradition, and love.
Homework: Begin working on essays. Students should use their journal entries as a resource while writing the essays. Outlines are due at the next class period.
Day Ten
FOCUS: What Makes a Book Great?
Day Ten Lesson Plan [PDF]
Activities: Explore the qualities of a great novel.
Homework: Finish essays, due at the next class.
*Page numbers refer to the 2009 HarperPerennial 25th anniversary edition of Love Medicine.
